smacky and bucky

Yesterday the temps were again mild as heck for February: in the low 60s! I picked up H from the sitter on the way home from work and we went straight to a playground to get some air. And swing. And swing. And swing. That's all he wanted to do! Nearly 30 minutes of it!

I'm going to curse and show a little emotion here: Holy shit, this kid is fuckin' awesome! His favorite toys are Jackie Chan and a plush Alexander Ovechkin. Yesterday evening he randomly climbed onto a rocking horse he was too small for a month ago and started rocking out on it like it was no big deal, shocking the heck out of us. He does something new every day.

Friday night I watched the Caps win (a win they really needed!)

Saturday was daddy-kid day (unofficial; it just worked out this way). The original plan was to take Henry on his first visit to the zoo. But it was cold and windy (snow showers in the morning!) so that was out. My friend (the other dad) suggested the National Aquarium, which was a great suggestion: we could still see animals, but it's inside! Between all the other kids and the giant colorful fish, Henry couldn't decide where to look next!
Saturday night Laura made barbeque chicken and I watched the Caps win again (and again, a needed win!).

Sunday we went to lunch at Gordon Biersch (garlic fries! Yum!) then stopped in to see Laura's aunt and uncle who live in the area. Then we went to the playground at Celmyjontri Park. Holy crap, this place is amazing! Check out the aerial view of it:

Wow, is all I can say. Henry had a blast. He went down every sliding board by himself, then he would run around and ride them again. Check out the link in the name of the park above. This playground is designed for fun and learning for all kids through a generous family.

Tonight is a good dinner and the Oscars.

Like the title said, a great weekend!

The wife and another mother organized a playgroup meeting yesterday at 4 p.m.... at an Irish pub two blocks from my office! Needless to say, I strolled up there after work to join the chaos. I had two pints of Guinness, some fried pickle slices, and half a Reuben. YUM!

The boy was the youngest there, but of course he loved it. He watched the bigger boys, and he sat in a high chair and colored. The older girls made a fuss over him and he loved the attention.

A little before 6 it was clear he was getting tired, so I carried him to my office and down to my car and drove home. He fell asleep on the short ride. I carried him inside and put him to bed and he slept until 6 a.m. this morning!

The second doctor team agreed with the opinion that Henry needs surgery to repair the heart issues, and there's no real advantage to waiting until age 3, so it might very well be this summer. On March 1st we're meeting a surgical team and touring a facility at one of the two hospitals we're considering.

This is one of those rare times when having more information will make it more scary, because it will become even more real to us. As it is now I look at him when he falls asleep in my arms and just never want to put him down.

First of all, is that really your business? Well, okay, this is a blog, and the entire point is to write and share things. You got me there.

We had Monday off. Three-day weekend! So what did we do? Something fun? Not exactly. Saturday morning I drove out to IKEA (maybe 25 minutes down the highway) to purchase I giant freaking wardrobe for all the kitchen storage. Five long boxes I had to tie to the roof of the car. The wardrobe frame alone weighs 133 lbs. That may not sound like much, but I am but a single man, and an editor at that!

Here, just look at this:
I wish the kid was in the pic, or a stuffed animal, something to give you some perspective about how big this thing is (*that's what she said). The ceilings in this room are nine feet high!

Saturday evening we realized I had picked up the glass doors to the smaller wardrobe. AUGH! Sunday morning I strapped the glass doors to the roof of the car again and drove out to IKEA again to exchange them. Sigh. Strapped the new ones onto the top of the car and gingerly drove home.


Sunday I assembled this monster. I put the doors on Monday morning. While Henry and I were out running errands, Laura organized the kitchen, filling this beast and hiding away all the crazy things a kitchen has that you don't need daily or need to see.

And that was my three-day weekend. Jealous? I'm also getting over a cold! Yay!

Hey, guys, remember this? (Go scan it. It's a blog post from me from June 2011.)

Yeah... so, here's a follow-up. I got an email from the husband over the weekend, which I'll share here:

I haven't been on Facebook much for a couple weeks. Sort of avoiding it really. I wanted to let you know that [his wife] has told me she is going to be filing for divorce very soon. I guess I can tell you more by phone if want some time. Anyway, I thought I'd let you know. I hope some day she and I can reconcile our relationship, but for now she's made up her mind.


Ouch. They have two elementary school-aged kids, so this completely blows for everyone involved.

Our friends down the street offered to pick up lunch and come over to watch the Caps-Rangers game at 12:30 today. The dad and their little girl arrived and explained the mom wasn't feeling well and would be along. The game started, and at the end of the first period we ordered food and I went to pick it up. When I got there, I received a text from Laura, saying, "[The mom] called and said she thought she had food poisoning and they had to go home. Take their food to their house."

So I dropped their food off, said I hope she felt better, then returned home to eat my sandwich and watch the second period.

Life has moments of brutal seriousness sprinkled among the general day-to-day absurdity.

It's hard to give too much attention to one at the expense of the other.

I don't have any brilliant platitudes today. Just be good to each other today.

Hmmmm... Nope, got nothin' today.

If you've heard the band Air, you know what they sound like (Duh, if you've heard ANY band, you generally know what they sound like, unless they change their style every release!).

Anywho... I got a tweet from AmazonMP3 that Air's new release Le Voyage Dans La Lune is out today, and Amazon has it on MP3 for $3.99. Eleven songs and a 15-minute video (and the video is the original 1902 film Le Voyage Dans La Lune with Air doing the modern soundtrack!) Total deal! So I purchased it and added it to my iPod while I made coffee this morning.

Okay, I did a Google image search and no, Nicki Minaj doesn't always look like someone unexpectedly put a finger up her butt, but she always does look like that when she performs. Crazy eyes.

Sorry if that's crude or sexist. I was going to add an ageist joke and say, "I felt as old as Madonna trying to identify the artist cameos during her halftime show," but I'll refrain. (Oops.)

We had the TV on the "big game" for the first half, but I only looked up during the commercials and we turned it off after the halftime show. We had already watched our big game of the day at 12:30 p.m., and the Caps lost to the Bruins 4 to 1. Blah.

Speaking of "the game," how crazy is it that folks are so confused as to whether they're allowed to call it what it is without incurring the wrath of the NFL? Example:


There's an interesting story about that here:Answer Man: Psst! It's OK to say 'Super Bowl'
The fear is justified. In 2006, the NFL tried to also trademark use of the phrase "The Big Game." (They dropped the idea when they realized it was getting them bad press.)

I watched The Thing (2011) prequel to the Carpenter version over the weekend. I want to watch it again, because I had the sound pretty low (sleeping baby in the house). I read a great review of it here after I watched the movie, which made me appreciate the director's intent even more.

We're supposed to learn the results of the medical review sometime after Wednesday this week. The problem is common enough that Laura found a blog by parents who went through the same thing in 2010, so that was informative (and both calming and frightening). It's also common enough that one of Laura's sisters is friends with a couple who went through the same thing with their kid. We'll be talking to them sometime in the future.

There. A good mix of the stupid and the serious. That will be my blog for the time being. Hang on and enjoy the ride. Keep arms and legs inside the car at all times.

Well, since Laura started a secret FB group to update family and friends about it, I can post it here:

On Tuesday, we popped into Henry's pediatric cardiologist's office to make a follow up appointment that would have been due in June. His amazing doctor, Dr. [X] fit us in right after the patient he was with.

We went straight to the echocardiogram. This was Henry's third visit to Dr. [X]. The two previous echoes showed a heart murmur. The second one indicated his heart was somewhat enlarged. We'd been encouraged to come back in a year. Yesterday, Henry stretched out lying on his Dad's chest watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" and Dr. [X] was able to get the best look yet at Henry's heart.

Dr. [X] is the most soothing specialist you can imagine. During our first exam he talked quietly and kept saying reassuring things as he checked each area. Yesterday though, he calmly said, "This is freaking me out a little bit." We waited as he continued the exam. He got the exact pictures he wanted and then he took out his model heart and began to explain to us what is going on.

Henry has ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) Sinus Venosus. He also has one or more pulmonary veins that are routed to the wrong part of the heart. What this means is that his heart is recycling a bunch of blood and working quite hard to do so. He is not in any pain or immediate danger. However Dr. [X] said that open heart surgery is required.

The good news is that once the repair has been made, the heart will be "good as new" and Henry can live a totally normal, long life. I finally had the courage to Google the condition today and found these words very reassuring, "Excellent surgical results with a mortality rate near 0% can be expected. This is particularly true in patients who undergo repair when younger than 15 years. [First repaired]... in 1954 ... at the Mayo Clinic. "

So that's our news. Out 16 month old is probably going to have open heart surgery in the next six months. It's scary as hell to think about, but the success rate is amazing, and I think about all the things it could have been, and we're really fortunate. He doesn't need a transplant so we're not waiting on a donor or risking rejection of an organ; it's not something that could be fixed and recur later like cancer; and it's something that can be fixed and he can have no memory of going through it at this point.

I'll update here as news comes and things happen, but I'm still going to be posting goofy shit, because lord knows I'm going to need some goofy distractions now and then. For instance, De showed me that there is a Cobra figure that is a zombie!

Labels: Heart

We just got some overwhelming medical news yesterday. I'm not ready to discuss it yet, which may seem silly since I can count the number of people who read this blog on one hand (and probably give you their FULL LEGAL NAMES!), but... yeah, just know that this is going to be an interesting year in our house.